Identifying Subjects, Predicates, and Compliments of Sentences

Definitions

  • Subject of a sentence:
    • The subject of a sentence is the who or what of the sentence, usually the main person or thing mentioned in the sentence. The the following sentence the subject is italicized: Sami ran with the dogs. Sami is the subject of the sentence because she is the one doing the action of the sentence.
    • The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause.
  • Predicate of a sentence:
    • The predicate of a sentence is the action of the sentence. The predicate tells what the subject is doing. Most likely it will be a verb. in the above sentence used for finding the subject, will be used again to find the predicate. the predicate will be italicized: Sami ran with the dogs. Ran is the predicate because it is what Sami, the subject is doing.
    • Speaking in traditional grammar, the predicate is the rest of the sentence apart from the subject.
  • Complement of a sentence:
    • A word or word group that completes the predicate in a sentence. The two kinds of complements are subject complements (which follow the verb be and other linking verbs) and object complements (which follow a direct object).
    • A complement is a word or phrase that is necessary to a sentence to make it complete.
    • Example: Sami ran fast with the dogs. Fast is the complement in this sentence.




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